Bent on user-generated content: Wikia raises $11m to grow its network of wiki sites

Wikia, the for-profit company behind an eponymous network of collaboratively published online content, has raised just south of $11 million in new funding according to a regulatory filing.

Started in late 2004 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley (who left the company in February 2012), Wikia runs a huge network of over 200,000 wiki sites with a particular focus on video game, entertainment and lifestyle content.

The funding comes at a time of significant growth for the wiki hosting and social networking company (and right around the time the Wikimedia Foundation launched its annual fundraising campaign) so let’s assume Wikia is capitalizing its momentum.

Wikia hasn’t yet announced its new funding round publicly but we’ve requested more information. Previous investors in Wikia include Amazon, Bessemer Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Omidyar Network and a slew of angel investors including Joi Ito and Reid Hoffman.

Last month, Wikia announced a partnership with Sony Online Entertainment to work on an ‘official online community’ for the MMOFPS PlanetSide 2.

The company also just released its very own multimedia streaming player and landed a slew of content syndication deals.

Also see:

Wikia: The largest social network you’ve never heard of

Jimmy Wales talks Wikipedia, censorship…and why he hates “crowdsourcing” [Interview]

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